Is It just a matter of personality? On the role of life satisfaction in childbearing behavior

This paper analyses the role of individual subjective wellbeing (SWB) in conjunction with personality traits (PTs) in childbearing behavior. We use the German Socio Economic Panel to estimate the way satisfaction matters for having a child. We find that SWB positively predicts childbearing, with the effect significant for both genders only for the second child. By controlling that this is not caused by PTs either on SWB or fertility, we assure that the effect of SWB on fertility is not determined by PTs, therefore leaving room for adequate policy measures aimed at raising SWB, which in turn would sustain fertility.